Robert
Lipka, shown at a York, Pa, off track betting parlor in this March 21,
1995 file photo, was arrested by the
FBI Friday, Feb. 23, 1996 on
charges of spying for the former Soviet Union in the 1960s in return for
cash. Lipka, who worked for the super secret
National
Security Agency from1964 to 1967, was arrested by agents at his home
in Millersville, Pa. (AP Photo/Marty Heisey-Lancaster New Era)

Robert Lipka, former clerk at the United States National Security
Agency.[8] Lipka denied his guilt until the very last moments before his
trial was to begin when it was revealed that the prime witness against
him was a former KGB archivist with proof of his relation with the
KGB.[9]

Published: September 25, 1997
When Robert Lipka was a 19-year-old soldier in the U.S. Army assigned to
the National Security Agency (NSA) at Ft. Meade, Maryland, he made a
decision—a decision to betray his country for cash. From 1964 to 1967,
he was assigned to the Collections Bureau, later renamed the Priority
Materials Branch. His principal assignment was to remove classified
NSA
national defense documents from teleprinters and deliver them to the
appropriate departments. However, Lipka often hid these classified
documents on his person to escape detection from
NSA security and used a
common espionage technique known as a “dead drop” to transfer these
documents to the KGB and then retrieve payment at a prearranged site.
Lipka, whose KGB code name was “Rook”, also possessed spy cameras to
clandestinely photograph sensitive documents.

In August 1967, Lipka resigned from the Army and moved to Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, where he attended college at a local university. When he
left, he took more classified
NSA documents with him. An independent
investigation regarding two individuals, Peter and Ingeborg Fischer,
indicated that they were most likely German/Russian operatives acting at
the behest of the KGB.The investigation further revealed that the
Fischers had made contact with Lipka in 1968. When the agents discovered
that Lipka used to work at
NSA, they suspected he had been the spy
utilizing the code name “Rook.”
In 1993, based on the information developed from the Fischer
investigation and a book written by a former KGB Major General which
contained a detailed description of espionage committed by a young
soldier at
NSA in the mid-1960s, an
FBI undercover agent posing as a
Russian military intelligence official contacted Lipka. Because the
undercover agent knew his correct code name, Lipka agreed to several
face-to-face meetings in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Baltimore,
Maryland. During these meetings, Lipka complained that the
KGB had not
paid him enough money for the
NSA documents he had transferred and
accepted $10,000 as the balance due for his past espionage activities.